California Speaker of State Assembly Honored

An event this past weekend was put together by the local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community to honor California's Speaker of the California State Assembly, Karen Bass. The job of Speaker, which Bass recently got, is pretty much the second most powerful political job in the state with her current top duty is to balance the budget, which is no easy task.

According to local writer and activist, Jasmyne Cannick (remember Kiss my Gass?), in an e-mail, Bass reaffirmed her support in fighting Proposition 8, but also "reminisced about her time working in L.A. County USC’s emergency room and witnessing doctors who refused to treat patients diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and how we can never go back to those days and that everyone, regardless of status, color, gender, sexual orientation, and the ability to pay deserves to be treated fairly and humanely."

Adding to the list of many progressive local politicians supporting gay rights by taking symbolic action, Bass also announced that she had presided over a gay marriage earlier this month between Rabbi Lisa Edwards and her partner Tracy Moore

Photo of Elliot Johnson, the former administrator of Los Angeles County Medical Center’s HIV/AIDS Outpatient Clinic (the largest in the county) and Karen Bass at the Event in Barnsdall Art Park by Jasmyne Cannick